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@Riot: I'd rather be banned than Ranked Restricted. Here's why.

Ex Infernalis·11/14/2014, 7:36:44 PM·8 votes·2,070 views

So I'm ranked restricted. That's my own fault. I wont try to defend or justify my inappropriate actions. As a result, I'm ranked restricted.

But I would by far prefer to be just banned for two or three months. Seriously.

The reason is that the idea behind ranked restriction is contrary to the reality. The idea is that a player who is ranked restricted has time to cool of, has a reason to play positive and get back into ranked.

That doesn't work.

I have my Ph.D in Euthentics. Particularly in regards to altering environment to alter behaviour. Nurture over nature (rather than simply improving living conditions).

Now. The reason why ranked restriction for X amount of wins doesn't work is twofold:

  1. It makes the game a chore. It's not enjoyable to log on and play. I'm not playing to have fun anymore, I'm playing to to clear my restrictions. This means I'm playing to win. This makes me more competitive than if I were simply playing a ranked game or a normal game sans restriction. As any of your 'specialists' will tell you, competive behaviour often manifests increased aggression. So there's that. The game is not fun anymore.

  2. It makes me want to rage even more when someone is trolling/goes AFK/wastes my time. Why? Because now that I'm restricted from ranked, my thinking goes from 'ah, we can always win the next one' to fuck, this guy is increasing the length of my restriction. And it does. When a troll blows your chances of winning, it's increasing the length of time that you're restricted from ranked. That will produce more incentive to be negative than positive because, as I said, ranked restricted players aren't playing for fun, they're playing to* win*. They want to clear their restriction as fast as possible. This is not positive reinforcement.

At least when you're banned you can just level an alt, play other games, take time away from the game and come back to it refreshed. With ranked restriction per win, you can't do that. If you take time off from the game, you still have to win X amount to clear the restriction when you come back and you're back to square one once you encounter your first troll.

But pointing out the problem isn't enough. So I have devised two possible alternatives which, likely, you've explored already. But maybe you haven't so we'll see:

  1. Make ranked restricted per game, but a minimum of 100 games needed to clear the restriction with a review at the end

100 games is a fair amount. It will give the player time to chill in normals (win or lose), reduce their toxicity (bearing in mind a review at the end) and simply let of steam, de-fuse and reflect on their actions if they're smart.

  1. Ranked restricted for 2 months or more.

Same reason behind 1).

  1. permanent chat restrictions on top of 1 and 2. Even disabling chat altogether (you can give people permanent 0/0 messages with your current system).

In closing:

What you've done is arranged the environment to be a far more negative experience for the player who is restricted. You give them less reason to want to be positive and more reason to want to be competitive and aggressive, which is antithetical to what you're trying to achieve.

16 Comments

ValyrianBlade11/14/2014, 7:52:22 PM7 votes

I get your point.

There's good reason for why it's the way it is though.

First, it's like you said, you'll level another account if you're banned. There are so many smurfs now they many complain they're ruining the game for new players. That's really not good, because without new players being attracted this game will die off. Riot can't stop you from making a smurf, but by not banning you they're at least not giving you incentive to go level a smurf (or worse go troll on a smurf). Especially once a player has two accounts at 30, they can spend their ban just playing ranked in the other account.

Second, it needs to be wins and not Games. You already said you're not playing for fun. [Frankly I disagree with this, I can see why ranked is more fun than normals (and as a level 29 on my only account I can assure you there are times I wish I could just play ranked) but if you don't enjoy normals you don't enjoy the game. This would mean you play ranked only to win, only to "boost your ego" and frankly this is probably the kind of player riot wants to get rid of. I mean, I know I don't want you here. I want people in the game to play because they like the game win or lose and will try their best to have a competitive match. The players so caught up in winning that they rage whenever someone is outplayed are a huge part of the problem. ]

Anyways back to point 2, if it was just Games, you'd have no incentive to try. You'd ruin normals for the rest of us. You'd probably only play your preferred role regardless of your pick position (or someone calling it first in blinds) because there's no consequence to losing if your team doesn't cater to you. Games doesn't encourage you to fix What's wrong and become a good player, wins at least has a chance of making you play for the team. When someone trolls you it's frustrating, but that's part of your punishment I guess. Frankly, most "trolls" are just a below average player who's actually trying against someone much better, and then gives up because of their teammates negativity. From the sounds of things, you have this negativity. Again, as a level 29, I don't want toxic players being told they have to play x normals, but it doesn't matter if they lose. I still want to win, if you're on my team in the current case you'll be a decent teammate, in the latter case you'll just mess around and ruin the game I'm trying to play for fun.

So in summary, of course you'd prefer a ban - that's why your punishment is a restriction.

Eleshakai11/14/2014, 9:00:52 PM3 votes

Ranked Restrictions are designed to force you to actually play. You can't just go on a smurf and wait them out, and you can't just troll 'cause then you won't win.

Sounds like a pretty good solution to me.

Drunk Rummate11/14/2014, 8:07:57 PM2 votes

plus the thing that you didnt mention:

rank restricted players are ruining normal draft mode for non-toxic players

Padagi11/14/2014, 8:38:49 PM2 votes

Basically the TLDR is you are unwilling to actually change yourself in order to reduce your rage when playing this game and thus it's going to take you much longer to attain your wins required to remove the restrictions. Meanwhile, you don't even have access to chat so rage does you absolutely no good.

Gotcha. Permaban inc.

Mikal Pikal11/14/2014, 9:38:03 PM1 votes

I totally agree. Forcing a certain number of wins makes no sense and just makes it more likely to cause additional toxicity. This is compounded by the fact that the game is very important for you, but "just a normal" for the rest of the players. So you are playing with people trying new champs, strats, etc. Whether you win or lose should not be a factor in getting back to ranked; it should be your attitude. One argument against this is that the offender will attempt to end games as soon as possible, whether it be surrendering, throwing games, etc. This fear is unfounded since a person on ranked restrict is on probation so to speak, meaning his in-game antics are reviewed much more carefully. It is much much easier for a person on ranked restrict to get elevated to perma ban than it is to become ranked restricted in the first place.

Increase the number of games if you want...or make it a set time limit...but it makes no sense to require wins.

IMightBeYourDad11/14/2014, 9:48:45 PM1 votes

Preach!

Cozarkian11/14/2014, 9:56:34 PM1 votes

How about instead of wins, it is the number of times you are honored by allies not on your friend list?

Now not only to you have to avoid being mean to your teammates, you have to be nice to them so they will honor you. That should reinforce positive behavior and help you learn to turn aside from your negative behavior.

Circuit Bear11/14/2014, 10:30:55 PM1 votes

This is one of the more well developed posts I have seen on this thread. I'm impressed.

Ixlin11/14/2014, 10:59:38 PM1 votes

I suppose my only real question would be what, exactly, does the field of Euthentics study? And what prestigious school did you attend?

hh the thinker11/14/2014, 7:59:41 PM1 votes

I thought I was going to read something a bit silly, but I was wrong going into this. i agree with the number of games instead of wins is more fair and makes sense. i didn't even know they did it by wins.

hh the thinker11/14/2014, 8:03:42 PM1 votes

i also agree with ValyrianBlade on a lot of points, though i think 40 wins and 100 games (the 40 wins can be within the 100 games) would be the middle point on point two.

BronzeVicious11/14/2014, 9:30:19 PM1 votes

What you've done is arranged the environment to be a far more negative experience for the player who is restricted. You give them less reason to want to be positive and more reason to want to be competitive and aggressive, which is antithetical to what you're trying to achieve.

I have to disagree with you, and I will offer a few reasons why:

  1. A restriction or ban is not INTENDED to be a positive experience for the guilty summoner. Quite the opposite, in fact.

  2. The problem here lies not in the nature of the punishment, but the willingness of the guilty party to rehabilitate. One could certainly take your point of view on the matter, and say "hey, this really sucks worse than it did before. I guess because this isn't fun, the appropriate response from me would be to continue to let my rage and anti-social behavior get the better of me". I think a more responsible choice is to realize that you really messed up, and then go play some games to learn how to NOT behave similarly. The fact of the matter is that the trolls and the bads are going to be there when you return from your ban. Why not have some games in which to learn a more reasonable method of interacting with them?

  3. If someone does not have the patience to make it through a ranked restriction cleanly, then I believe the system is doing its job by weeding these players out. If you can't play your way to 30 wins without pulling your hair out and raging, the community does not want you back.